by Kelly Keene

I stayed late at work last week, and it felt like such a grind. Especially now, that the days get darker sooner. My reward was the magnificent November sunset. I got to witness its fiery oranges and pinks it all the way home. Light takes on a life of its own this time of year, and Alvin Feinman does a beautiful job of capturing its glory in November Sunday Morning. The speaker of this poem stayed “awake all night”, but rose to a glorious sunrise. The light danced across the view of his city streets, and in the sky, and on the river. It captivated him, and relieved some of the stress he carried from the night before. 

Each stanza begins with a thought mid sentence. His reveries are interrupted by the beauty of the world around him. It is not just bright and beautiful, it is “low and clear and wide” (2). His verbs also personify the light and make it active and alive. It “turns,” “standing” (stanza 1).  LIke watching a beautiful dancer, the speaker follows the light with joy and reverence. We follow the light in melodic phrasing. There are several moments in this poem where Feinman uses alliterative phrasing to capture the “L” sound and essence of the playful levity of the moment. “I loitered in/ Lay lit like feilds…” he says (7-8). And any interruption to this dance, like that of “rigid water,” or “random traffic,” could not interrupt his appreciation of this morning’s sky (11-12). 

It can be difficult to capture the complexity of such an intangible beauty that shifts and reforms right before our eyes. Like trying to pin down the grace of a ballerina in the midst of a movement, Feinman uses similes to compare the light and the effect it has on all that it touches. The sunrise makes buildings  “vivid and calm” and compares the way they look in the light to “rigid water”-cool and reflective (10-11). He highlights how vulnerable the trees look, illuminated by the sunlight. They are “stripped bare” in fall, yet despite their vulnerability, the light paints them in “essential elegance” (17). By the time we get to line 23, and feel the shift in the speaker’s point of view, we understand that the reason they see vulnerability in these naked trees, might have something to do with how he spent the night before. 

He had laid “beside her breathing” but couldn’t sleep (27). He woke with the sun to “smoke, and linger out desire” (24). This image makes me think that something about his relationship with the woman leaves him anxious and uncertain. The “falling rain” could be symbolic of less beautiful storms they’ve weathered together, and his nervousness about the future. The sunrise may have calmed him, but the drops from last night’s rain still echo, “drop upon drop” like a ticking clock or constant reminder. They are the metronyms that keep the beat, and push the light to keep moving. 

November light seduces us, interrupts the hum drum of our lives. It can also force us to pause, reflect on the work we do, the complex company we keep, and process how we feel.